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Eadgyth of Wessex (910-946)
}} Biography House of Wessex He was of the royal English dynasty called House of Wessex, a family originating in the southwest corner of England and gradually increased in power and prestiege. The House became rulers of all the country with the reign of Alfred the Great in 871 and lasting until Edmund Ironside in 1016. This period of the English monarchy is known as the Saxon period. Royal Marriage In order to seal an alliance between two Saxon kingdoms, her half-brother, King Athelstan of England, sent two of his sisters to Germany, instructing the Otto, Duke of Saxony to choose whichever one pleased him best. Otto chose Edith and married her in 929. The remaining sister Algiva or Adiva was married to a "king near the Jupiter mountains" (the Alps). The precise identity of this sister is debated. She may have been Eadgifu of England, who married Charles the Simple III, King of France and Herbert III, Count of Vermandois, or another sister otherwise unknown to history. In 936 Henry the Fowler of Germany died and his eldest son, Eadgyth's husband, was crowned at Aachen. As queen, Eadgyth undertook the usual state duties of "First lady": when she turns up in the records it is generally in connection with gifts to the state's favoured monasteries or memorials to female holy women and saints. In this respect she seems to have been more diligent than her now widowed and subsequently sainted mother-in-law Queen Matilda whose own charitable activities only achieve a single recorded mention from the period of Eadgyth's time as queen. There was probably rivalry between the Benedictine Monastery of St Maurice founded at Magdeburg by Otto and Eadgyth in 937, a year after coming to the throne and Matilda's foundation at Quedlinburg, intended by her as a memorial to her husband. Eadgyth accompanied her husband on his travels, though not during battles. She spent the hostilities of 939 at Lorsch Abbey Like her brother, Athelstan, Edith was devoted to the cult of Saint Oswald and was instrumental in introducing this cult into Germany after her marriage to the emperor. Her lasting influence may have caused certain monasteries and churches in Saxony to be dedicated to this saint. Eadgyth's death at a relatively young age was unexpected. Burial Tomb In 2008 the skeleton of Queen Eadgyth, granddaughter of Alfred the Great was found in Magdeburg Cathedral in Germany. It was confirmed in 2010 that these remains belong to her — one of the earliest members of the English royal family. Her tomb is located in the Cathedral of Magdeburg. A lead coffin inside a stone sarcophagus with her name on it was found and opened in 2008 by archaeologists during work on the building. An inscription recorded that it was the body of Eadgyth, reburied in 1510. It was examined in 2009, then brought to Bristol, England, for tests in 2010. Professor Mark Horton of Bristol University said that "this may prove to be the oldest complete remains of an English royal." The investigations at Bristol, applying isotope tests on tooth enamel, checked whether she was born and brought up in Wessex and Mercia, as written history has indicated. Testing on the bones revealed that they are the remains of Eadgyth, from study made of the enamel of the teeth in her upper jaw.German cathedral bones 'are Saxon queen Eadgyth, BBC News, 16 June 2010 Testing of the enamel revealed that the individual entombed at Magdeburg had spent time as a youth in the chalky uplands of Wessex.Remains of first king of England's sister found in German cathedral, The Guardian, 17 June 2010 "Tests on these isotopes can give a precise record of where the person lived up to the age of 14," noted The Times of London in its story on the testing. "In this case they showed that the woman in the casket had spent the first years of her life drinking water that came from springs on the chalk hills of southern England. This matched exactly the historical records of Eadgyth’s early life."The Times, Simon de Bruxelles, 17 June 2010 The bones "are the oldest surviving remains of an English royal burial," Bristol University announced in a press release.Bones confirmed as those of Saxon Princess Eadgyth, University of Bristol, 17 June 2010 External links *The life of an Anglo-Saxon princess, Michael Wood, The Guardian, 17 June 2010 *How the study of teeth is revealing our history, Mike Pitts, The Guardian, 17 June 2010 References